Bilborough Sixth Form College has become a founding member of a new Multi-Academy Trust.

Following an extensive consultation period, the college has joined the Better Futures Multi-Academy Trust (BFMAT), which has been designed with sixth form colleges in mind and is sponsored by Coventry University. Its first member college, King Edward VI in Nuneaton, joined in January 2019.

This move is intended to safeguard the College’s future and to preserve the distinctive Sixth Form College experience for students. To qualify for membership of the Trust, the Corporation of Bilborough Sixth Form College has been dissolved in order that Bilborough Sixth Form College can convert to a 16-19 academy and join the Trust.

The name, identity, location, values, vision and mission of Bilborough Sixth Form College will remain the same. Students will remain registered at Bilborough Sixth Form College, accessing the same provision in the same location and the college will still be headed by its own principal. Teachers will continue to teach at Bilborough Sixth Form College only and staff terms and conditions will remain the same.

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Pupils in Nepal are enjoying meals at their primary school for the first time thanks to a group of students and staff from Bilborough College.

Twenty-eight students and staff spent two weeks in Nepal this summer and before setting off they raised £4,780, with the support of a local charity, to pay for the construction of a new school kitchen at a local primary school.

Previously, children at the school were not given meals and many of them often struggled to concentrate or fainted in lessons due to the lack of food.

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Students at Bilborough Sixth Form College quizzed MP Anna Soubry on topics ranging from Brexit to sixth form funding during a question and answer session.

The Tory MP for Broxtowe visited the college after receiving an email from student Tilly Wring, 18, asking about further education funding.

Tilly said she was delighted that Anna had responded by coming in to Bilborough College to answer students’ questions.

She said: “My parents are both lecturers and they’ve had a lot of issues with changes in funding at universities and it’s a lot worse at colleges. 16-18 education funding is dire and is unsustainable. I emailed Anna to express my concerns as a constituent and I wanted to talk to her about that and she offered to come in. I think this was a really great opportunity and I’m really pleased she agreed to do it.”

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Bilborough Sixth Form College has seen the number of students receiving conditional offers from Oxbridge universities reach its highest percentage for three years.

Just over a third of students who applied have been offered places at a range of colleges at Oxford and Cambridge universities on courses including Engineering, English Literature, Chemistry, Biochemistry, PPE, Modern Languages and Music.

Thirteen students out of 39 – or 33 per cent –  who applied to Oxford and Cambridge have received conditional offers – the highest percentage for the last three years.

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Bilborough College has celebrated a 10-year link with a lifesaving bone marrow donor initiative by signing up its 1,000^th student to the programme.

Register & Be a Lifesaver sessions were launched at Bilborough College in 2009 and from the 1,095 students who have signed up there have been seven donors.

The most recent was Amy Rogers, 18, of Sherwood, who donated her bone marrow in October 2016 after signing up to the register following an R&Be talk at Bilborough College in 2014. She was also the 50^th donor from the R&Be programme.

Student Ethan Buttress became the UK’s youngest bone marrow donor to a non-related recipient at the age of 17 in 2014 after signing up to R&Be at Bilborough College.

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Bilborough College students debated the complexities of Brexit with Labour MP Alex Norris and the co-founder of an organisation dedicated to ensuring that young people’s views on the subject are heard.

Mr Norris, MP for Nottingham North, joined Femi Oluwole, from Our Future, Our Choice, for a lively question and answer session about Brexit in the refectory at Bilborough College.

Mr Oluwole said Our Future, Our Choice was campaigning for a second vote on the terms of any deal agreed by Prime Minister Theresa May.

He said: “I always give the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland as an example. A copy of that was sent to every person and they were given the opportunity to vote on it and that is the democratic way forward. Young people need to be involved and we want to know what their opinions are.”

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The number of A*-B grades achieved at A-Level by Bilborough College students has risen once again – representing a five per cent increase over the past two years.

A total of 55 per cent of grades were A*-B, a rise of three per cent from last year and up from 50 per cent in 2016.

The pass rate was an impressive 98.2 per cent this year, meaning that the pass rate has now either remained at or exceeded 98 per cent for the past 14 years.

A total of 606 students took A-Levels, including those taking two A-Levels alongside a BTEC Diploma. A total of 502 students took three or more A-Levels and 12 per cent of these gained three or more A and A* grades.

Chris Bradford, Principal at Bilborough College, congratulated students on their results.

He said: “Here at Bilborough we’re delighted that once again so many of our students have performed so well. This has to be one of the most important days of the year for us all – students, parents and staff alike. When everyone has worked so hard – and coped so well with the new reformed A Levels – it’s great to see that effort and dedication rewarded with excellent results. Of course, as well a chance to offer congratulations today is also about confirming students’ next steps. We’re looking forward to celebrating with our students when they come to collect their results and wishing all of them well for their exciting futures. Our staff will be offering expert advice to anyone who might want to change their plans either because they’ve done slightly better than they anticipated or, in a few cases, not quite achieved their target grades.”

Bilborough College staff have spoken of their pride in ex-student Molly Windsor after she scooped the leading actress honour at the BAFTA TV Awards.

Molly won the award for her role in Three Girls, a drama about three victims of the Rochdale sex abuse scandal, beating Hollywood actresses Claire Foy and Thandie Newton.

Collecting the prize from Sherlock star Martin Freeman, Molly, 20, of Breaston, said: “Three Girls was born out of the courage of the real three girls, and the real Holly, Amber and Ruby who told their story over and over and over and told it again to us. I just want to say thank you for recognising how selfless that is and how brave that is.”

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New figures show that on average ex-Bilborough College students have once again achieved higher classes of degrees than their counterparts from state, independent schools and other sixth form colleges across the UK.

A total of 87.02 per cent of students from Bilborough College achieved a first or upper second class honours degree at university in the 2016/17 academic year – a rise from last year’s figure of 84.93 per cent.

This year’s figure compares to 78.62 per cent from sixth form colleges, 76.94 per cent from state schools and 85.80 per cent from independent schools across the country.

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